Happy Earth Day!

In honor of Earth Day, my goal is to not put a single thing in the garbage can today- in other words, not use anything that creates waste. No packaging, no cleaning products, no disposable containers, nothing. Recycling is perfectly OK, but no garbage! (And no, that doesn't mean that I'm going to let any trash sit out on the kitchen counter until tomorrow :P) I'll check back tonight or tomorrow morning to let you know how it all went!

I am also going to take a bit of time to share some of the progress we have made in our goal of transitioning to greener cleaning products and household items. So far we have:

- Switched from chemical cleaners and Clorox wipes to Nature's Source 99% natural Windex and Seventh Generation All-Natural Wipes (both purchased at the grocery store). When our supply of those runs out, I will begin to make my own cleaners from water, vinegar, lemon juice, and baking soda to use with organic cotton washcloths that can be washed and reused.

(images -clockwise from top- from samsclub.com, greenlightoffice.com, acmemarkets.com, walgreens.com, samsclub.com)

- Switched from standard laundry detergent to Ecos 100% All Natural Laundry Detergent (purchased at Sam's Club). When our supply of dryer sheets runs out, I will also purchase these wool dryer balls from seller farmfreshfiber on etsy to use instead.

(images -clockwise from top- from samsclub.com, samsclub.com, farmfreshfiber on etsy.com, samsclub.com)

- After our Swiffer (which I used with the wet pads) snapped in half, I purchased a steam mop that cleans with nothing but water. I still have the sweeper end of the Swiffer and may buy a cover for it -such as one of these- to help with the dusting.

- Stopped using plastic bags at the grocery store and started using large canvas bags for groceries, and reusable mesh bags for produce.

That's all for today! I'm looking forward to my little experiment, and will let you know how it went tomorrow!

Our New Backyard

Once upon a time, this was our backyard.

There were 25 trees, on just the back 1/3 of our 0.33 acre property. The previous owners didn't do any kind of maintenance back there, so it truly became a forest- brush and branches everywhere, layers upon layers of decomposing leaves, the whole nine yards. And this spring, we are in the process of changing that.

We did a bit of raking. Hi H!

Someone from craigslist is coming to pick up the swing set.

That pile of sticks and branches was from before we even cut any trees down. They were all JUST on the ground everywhere, buried amongst leaves.

As much as it pains me, we needed to cut down some trees. Please note the two terribly awkwardly placed islands at the bottom of the picture. Seriously!

After the tree guys did their thing. Wow, what a difference! The yard looks SO much bigger. And those bags of leaves weren't even one third of what we cleared out.

We disassembled the two islands in the middle of the yard, and are reassembling them on the sides. The first one is done.

The second one is in progress.

I am thrilled that our new backyard is coming along so well. I am excited to put down grass seed and have space to enjoy it this summer. Our future dog is going to love it too :)

My Fresh New Start

As promised, (thrilling, I know) I'm checking in to report the results of my "Five Days to a Fresh Start" challenge. I took a bit more than 5 days, and I didn't get everything done, but I put a large dent in it and I'm really proud of my progress. It feels really good to have everything a little neater and more organized. Let's hope we can keep things this way for a while!

Declutter

• my closet- done

• office- mostly done

• night stands/dressers- done

• linen closet- done
(what, that wasn't on the list before?!? Well I added it to the list, and it's done!)


Donate/Recycle

• clothes from closet- mostly done
(not donated yet, but they're in piles and ready to go)

• old office desk- done
(we listed it on craigslist- for free- weeks ago, and each interested seller fell through. Finally someone picked it up!)

• stuff from office- mostly done
(we had a lot of working, but old electronics that we are able to donate, and the non-working ones we recycled. I still have to go through the books and CDs to see what we can donate.)

• old dishes/glasses- mostly done
(In piles, ready to go. I just have to check to see if my brother wants any for his apartment before they go to goodwill.)


Organize

• my closet- done
(feels so good to be able to walk through it. It used to be a total waste of a perfectly good walk-in closet)

• kitchen cabinets- mostly done


Store/File

• As organized as I am, H is usually the one who takes care of filing bills, tax info, medical stuff, etc. I have a tendency to "clean" too often and throw away things we need, so important papers are safer in his hands. I'll see if I can interest him in filing away some mail, pay stubs, and papers. However, this is something I try to do on a daily basis so I'm not sure how it will turn out...- done!!!
(I am so thrilled, he cleaned out the filing cabinet! He got rid of so much that we didn't need, it feels 50 lbs lighter. I love him so much!)

• holiday decorations- done
(I was able to sort out everything from the old "wedding" bin and store our Christmas decorations there.


Clean
This constantly needs to be done throughout the whole house, but I guess that's a bit ambitious... but what really needs a good, thorough scrubbing is:

• the upstairs bathroom- done

• laundry area- done

• downstairs bathroom- not so much... maybe this week

I promise my next post will be a little more interesting!

Five Days to a Fresh Start

I read about this challenge on Kate's blog Centsational Girl, and I knew I had to try it. Our house is absolutely crying for this! I'm so excited, I might start early...

So here is my list of places to tackle:

Declutter

• my closet

• office

• night stands/dressers

Donate/Recycle

• clothes from closet

• old office desk

• stuff from office

• old dishes/glasses

Organize

• my closet

• kitchen cabinets

Store/File

As organized as I am, H is usually the one who takes care of filing bills, tax info, medical stuff, etc. I have a tendency to "clean" too often and throw away things we need, so important papers are safer in his hands. I'll see if I can interest him in filing away some mail, pay stubs, and papers. However, this is something I try to do on a daily basis so I'm not sure how it will turn out...

• holiday decorations

Clean

This constantly needs to be done throughout the whole house, but I guess that's a bit ambitious... but what really needs a good, thorough scrubbing is:

• the upstairs bathroom

• laundry area

• downstairs bathroom

I'll give myself a goal of Sunday, January 10th. Let's see how it goes!

Such a Productive Weekend!

What did we do this weekend? Lots!

Main floor:
Bought and assembled a coat rack for the entryway
(we don't have a hall closet and are really starting to need some storage there with the cold weather)

Bought, set up, and decorated our Christmas tree (will post pics soon!)

Vacuumed and dusted


Computer room:
Cleaned all the junk out of the room

Bought paint (it's a really pale robin's egg blue that we will use with browns, crisp white, and bright red accents)

Removed the wallpaper border (will post pics soon)

Cleaned the walls, spackled, and taped for painting

Bought a curtain rod


Master Bedroom:
Bought and put up curtain rod

Hung curtains (again, will post pics when I get home!)


And I still had time to bake cookies and enjoy the Harry Potter movie marathon on ABC family. I feel so Christmas-y! And even more, I love getting stuff done. Being productive puts me on this high, and I'm just so giddy and happy.

It's not even 11 o'clock AM...

and I already turned this:



into:


The previous owners put a wall up in the back of the garage and created a little studio there. It's a pretty nice space. However, for us, it was home to old furniture, painting supplies, old electronics, and junk. There was SO much storage in here, but we weren't utilizing ANY of it. I only threw out two little things, too (and moved a coffee table into the garage). OK, so maybe I cheated a little, but I'm still feeling pretty good :) I even hung up some art we weren't using anywhere else (the three separate canvases done by me).